Desert Hot Springs residents can spur the city’s continuing emergence from the Great Recession-sparked malaise of the not-so-distant past through the choices they’ll make on the Nov. 6 ballot. One sure choice should be returning Scott Matas to the mayor’s post.

Matas, who this Editorial Board endorsed in his initial run in the 2015 election, has fulfilled expectations that he would bring order and rational leadership to City Hall.

During the recent Editorial Board endorsement session joint interview with challenger Stephen Giboney, Matas demonstrated he has firm command of the issues facing Desert Hot Springs and a vision for where he would take the city as mayor in the next term.

Matas says that among his key priorities will be continued bolstering of public safety, noting that the city Police Department is now fully staffed at 33 positions. The mayor says he’d like to see a new focus on pedestrian safety in the city – a key concern among residents as well, if social media chatter is any indication.

Matas says the city is using $3 million in transportation safety grants to fix two especially dangerous corridors for pedestrians in the city.

One of the highest-profile topics in the city has been legal marijuana.

Matas – a lifelong Desert Hot Springs resident whose community involvement includes everything from Little League coach to businessman to representative on regional government councils – says pot has been a “whirlwind” for the city over the past decade.

While the city is chasing marijuana revenue as a key to City Hall fiscal stability, Matas is almost brutally honest in his assessment that the pot pipeline might be too optimistic. He says of the 64 conditional use permits granted by the city so far for cannabis operations, perhaps a third will become going concerns.

We’ve asked leaders across the Coachella Valley in the past about reliance on marijuana perhaps not living up to the hype. Matas clearly gets it.

As for challenger Giboney, he seems passionate about Desert Hot Springs, to which he brought his family four years ago from Westlake Village. He pointed to his loud criticism of city goings on in other public settings as his first foray into community activism. Deciding that such an approach wasn’t working led to his decision to run for mayor, he says.

The “solutions” he offered to what he calls the city’s problems, at least in the Editorial Board discussion, were superficial and even self-contradictory.

When asked about the cannabis industry, Giboney’s response meandered from the concerns being primarily marginal, such as odor, before echoing Matas’ concern about city over-reliance on what could prove an unreliable revenue stream. He continued by suggesting that any pot revenue surpluses City Hall might be earmarking for reserve funds under its pot policies should be spent on resident wants now.

On other topics, Giboney offered little, if any, depth of knowledge and instead frequently reverted back to his claim of being a “problem solver.”

Desert Hot Springs doesn’t need a trainee in its top city post. Give Matas your vote for mayor on Nov. 6.